HOW COULD THIS POSSIBLY BE - AGAIN?

SOMBER HOMECOMING: The Fresno County town of Clovis has lost seven sons to the war in Iraq, four in the past seven months. A heartbroken community asks {hellip}

Mark Fainaru-Wada, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, August 29, 2007

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This undated photo provided by the family via the Fresno Bee on Thursday, Aug. 23, 2007, shows Army Spc. Nathan Hubbard. Hubbard was among 14 killed when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed in northern Iraq on Wednesday _ the second tragedy for his family, which lost another son in Iraq three years ago, the Fresno Bee reported. (AP Photo/Family Handout via Fresno Bee) **ONLINE OUT, NO SALES** less

This undated photo provided by the family via the Fresno Bee on Thursday, Aug. 23, 2007, shows Army Spc. Nathan Hubbard. Hubbard was among 14 killed when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed in northern Iraq on ... more

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(Left to right) Family members Shelly Croney, Heidi and parents Jeff and Peggy with brother Jason Hubbard watch as the body of Nathan Hubbard is carried into the Boice Funeral Home,Wednesday Aug. 29, 2007 in Clovis, Ca.
(The man on the right is not identified.) The Clovis community has had seven young soldier killed in Iraq. The last soldier was Nathan Hubbard whose older brother Jared was killed three years ago with his best friend, Jeremiah Baro. (Lacy Atkins San Francisco Chronicle) less

(Left to right) Family members Shelly Croney, Heidi and parents Jeff and Peggy with brother Jason Hubbard watch as the body of Nathan Hubbard is carried into the Boice Funeral Home,Wednesday Aug. 29, 2007 in ... more

Photo: Lacy Atkins

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Residents of Clovis line the streets to honor one of their own as the procession drives to the Boice Funeral Home, Wednesday Aug. 29, 2007 in Clovis, Ca. The Clovis community has had seven young soldier killed in Iraq. The last soldier was Nathan Hubbard whose older brother Jared was killed three years ago with his best friend, Jeremiah Baro. (Lacy Atkins San Francisco Chronicle) less

Residents of Clovis line the streets to honor one of their own as the procession drives to the Boice Funeral Home, Wednesday Aug. 29, 2007 in Clovis, Ca. The Clovis community has had seven young soldier killed ... more

Photo: Lacy Atkins

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Gail Carroll, mother of two who are servicing in Iraq, lights a candle for Nathan Hubbard during a vigil in his honor, Monday Aug. 27, 2007, at the New Hope Community Church, in Clovis, Ca. The Clovis community has had seven young soldier killed in Iraq. The last soldier was Nathan Hubbard whose older brother Jared was killed three years ago with his best friend, Jeremiah Baro. (Lacy Atkins San Francisco Chronicle) Ran on: 08-30-2007
An honor guard takes Nathan Hubbard's body into the funeral home, viewed by sister Heidi (second from left), parents Jeff and Peggy, brother Jason. less

Gail Carroll, mother of two who are servicing in Iraq, lights a candle for Nathan Hubbard during a vigil in his honor, Monday Aug. 27, 2007, at the New Hope Community Church, in Clovis, Ca. The Clovis community ... more

Photo: Lacy Atkins

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Robin and Keith Butterfield comfort each other in their sons room,Tuesday Aug. 28, 2007, in Clovis, Ca. The Butterfields are the parents of Tony Butterfield who was killed in July 2006, in Iraq. The Clovis community has had seven young soldier killed in Iraq. The last soldier was Nathan Hubbard whose older brother Jared was killed three years ago with his best friend, Jeremiah Baro. (Lacy Atkins San Francisco Chronicle) Ran on: 08-30-2007
An honor guard takes Nathan Hubbard's body into the funeral home, viewed by sister Heidi (second from left), parents Jeff and Peggy, brother Jason. less

Robin and Keith Butterfield comfort each other in their sons room,Tuesday Aug. 28, 2007, in Clovis, Ca. The Butterfields are the parents of Tony Butterfield who was killed in July 2006, in Iraq. The Clovis ... more

Photo: Lacy Atkins

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Melanie Knowes, neighbor of Nathan Hubbard is comforted as she cries by Marnie Chrisman, a stranger but a Clovis resident as the procession drives by Wednesday Aug. 29, 2007 in Clovis, Ca. The Clovis community has had seven young soldier killed in Iraq. The last soldier was Nathan Hubbard whose older brother Jared was killed three years ago with his best friend, Jeremiah Baro. (Lacy Atkins San Francisco Chronicle) MANDATORY CREDITFOR PHOTGRAPHER AND SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE/NO SALES-MAGS OUT less

Melanie Knowes, neighbor of Nathan Hubbard is comforted as she cries by Marnie Chrisman, a stranger but a Clovis resident as the procession drives by Wednesday Aug. 29, 2007 in Clovis, Ca. The Clovis community ... more

Jeff and Peggy Hubbard and famly watch as their son, Nathan's coffin is taken out of the hearst at the Boice Funeral Home, Wednesday Aug. 29, 2007 in Clovis, Ca. The Clovis community has had seven young soldier killed in Iraq. The last soldier was Nathan Hubbard whose older brother Jared was killed three years ago with his best friend, Jeremiah Baro. (Lacy Atkins San Francisco Chronicle) less

Jeff and Peggy Hubbard and famly watch as their son, Nathan's coffin is taken out of the hearst at the Boice Funeral Home, Wednesday Aug. 29, 2007 in Clovis, Ca. The Clovis community has had seven young soldier ... more

Photo: Lacy Atkins

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U.S. Army Honor Guard salute the body of Nathan Hubbard as the casket is carried into the Boice Funeral Home, Wednesday Aug. 29, 2007 in Clovis, Ca. The Clovis community has had seven young soldier killed in Iraq. The last soldier was Nathan Hubbard whose older brother Jared was killed three years ago with his best friend, Jeremiah Baro. (Lacy Atkins San Francisco Chronicle) less

U.S. Army Honor Guard salute the body of Nathan Hubbard as the casket is carried into the Boice Funeral Home, Wednesday Aug. 29, 2007 in Clovis, Ca. The Clovis community has had seven young soldier killed in ... more

Photo: Lacy Atkins

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A resident left a sign of support for the Hubbard family leaning on the procession car outside the Boice Funeral Home, Wednesday Aug. 29, 2007 in Clovis, Ca. The Clovis community has had seven young soldier killed in Iraq. The last soldier was Nathan Hubbard whose older brother Jared was killed three years ago with his best friend, Jeremiah Baro. (Lacy Atkins San Francisco Chronicle) less

A resident left a sign of support for the Hubbard family leaning on the procession car outside the Boice Funeral Home, Wednesday Aug. 29, 2007 in Clovis, Ca. The Clovis community has had seven young soldier ... more

Photo: Lacy Atkins

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HOW COULD THIS POSSIBLY BE - AGAIN?

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At 11:03 a.m. Wednesday, precisely as scheduled, a small, private jet touched down at Fresno Yosemite International Airport. The plane quickly made its way to a hangar on the outskirts of the airfield, where, in a scene that has become familiar here, six members of the U.S. Army Honor Guard unloaded a flag-draped coffin.

Inside were the remains of Cpl. Nathan Hubbard, 21, who one week earlier was among 14 soldiers killed when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed in northern Iraq. Hubbard was Clovis' seventh son to die in Iraq since November 2004 - and, most jarringly to this tight-knit community of 92,000, the second son of longtime residents Jeff and Peggy Hubbard to perish in the war.

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Nathan Hubbard and his older brother Jason had enlisted in the Army in summer 2005, less than a year after their other brother, Jared, had been killed by a roadside bomb in Ramadi. Killed alongside 22-year-old Jared was his best friend, 21-year-old Jeremiah Baro, who, like the Hubbards, had attended Buchanan High School. Jared and Jeremiah had joined the Marines on the buddy system, assuring they could serve together.

Now, two years and five deaths later, the body of Nathan Hubbard was loaded into a white hearse. With a motorcade of law enforcement leading and a limousine filled with family trailing, the hearse steadily made the 51/2-mile drive down the main street of Clovis to the Boice Funeral Home.

Along the way, and primarily at the funeral home, a couple hundred people stood in 103-degree heat, waving, weeping, worrying, wondering. How could this possibly be? Again?

Seven Clovis soldiers - ages 19, 21, 21, 21, 22, 23, 25 - dead. Four in the past seven months. Five from Buchanan High. Two from the same family.

"The first thing I thought was, 'That's the last thing this community needs,' " said Sgt. Christyn Delgadillo-Kidwell, who graduated from Buchanan with Jared Hubbard and who works at the Army recruiting center in Clovis.

At about noon, the motorcade settled in front of the funeral home, and Nathan Hubbard's body was carried inside by the honor guard as Peggy and Jeff Hubbard and their two remaining children, Jason and Heidi, watched in silence.

Jason, 33, stood stoically in uniform, showing little sign of the wrenching week that he and his family have endured. Jason had been serving in Iraq with Nathan and was in another Black Hawk nearby when Jared's copter went down. He was part of the salvage crew at the crash site, looking for survivors on that Wednesday evening.

Last Friday, Jason returned home. On Monday, there was a candlelight vigil for his brother. Today, Jason and the rest of his family are scheduled to speak to the media for the first time, and the funeral is set for Friday.

About 50 feet away from the Hubbards stood Renn Bane, a wiry, baby-faced 18-year-old who could have passed for 15. Bane had just graduated from Buchanan High, but he said he knew Nate Hubbard fairly well because his best friend's brother was Nate's closest pal.

Three weeks earlier, as soon as he turned 18, Bane had signed his papers to join the Army. Last Thursday, hours after he had learned of Nathan's death, he walked into the recruiting office to finalize his plans.

"You hear about Nate?" asked the recruiter.

"Yeah," replied Bane.

"You still want to do this?"

"Yes."

Outside the funeral home, Bane said he knew of eight other members of his graduating class of 750 who were joining the military.

"I don't want to pay the ultimate sacrifice, but I'm willing to," he said, insisting that although he was nervous, he was not scared.

Bane is scheduled to leave for boot camp today, the day before Nathan Hubbard's funeral.

Clovis was founded in 1891 as a freight stop along the San Joaquin Valley Railroad. Named after Clovis Cole, the "Wheat King of the United States," the town emerged with an Old West feel that it has clung to for many years. An annual rodeo was started in 1914, and it continues to this day - one of several parades and festivals in a town that some would view as a Fresno suburb but whose people will assure you otherwise.

The Clovis Chamber of Commerce Web site notes that one of the town's celebrities was actor Ken Curtis, known as "Festus Haggen" on the TV series "Gunsmoke." There is a statue of Festus in the middle of Old Town, just down the street from the Boice Funeral Home.

But while Clovis has maintained some of its quaint Western charm, the city has exploded in the past two decades in the wake of major redevelopment. Since 1988, the population has more than doubled to 92,269, according to city statistics, and Clovis has emerged as one of the valley's wealthiest communities, with a median family income of $67,947 - about $12,000 higher than the U.S. average.

The city is marked by low crime and unemployment rates, sparkling, sprawling schools and a large religious base that includes a significant Mormon presence.

According to the most recent voting records, 54.3 percent of voters in Clovis registered Republican, and 29.6 percent were Democrats.

The Clovis Unified School District, which houses more than 37,000 students at 41 schools from kindergarten through high school, has a dress code that states, "All clothing shall be neat, clean and acceptable in appearance and shall be worn within the bounds of decency and good taste as appropriate for school." Shorts are permitted only from the first Monday in April through the last Friday in October, and they are not to be shorter than 6 inches above the top of the kneecap.

The school district also has a grooming policy that says, among other things, "Male haircuts may not fall below the midpoint of a standard standup shirt collar and earlobes must be visible" - many of Nathan Hubbard's fellow students noted that their free-spirited friend often pushed the limits of the grooming policy.

Earrings are not acceptable for boys.

"They're strict, it's no joke," said Jay Petersen, a local businessman who runs a computer consulting company and has a child entering kindergarten this year.

Petersen said he believes the conservative makeup of the town and the personal connections to the war because of the seven deaths have made it difficult for some to discuss Iraq in political terms.

"It's rough. I've been avoiding talking about it," Petersen said. "I really want to, but I don't know what to say. It seemed like for a while you were hearing about somebody from Clovis all the time. And they're so young.

"I'm trying to remember what I was doing at that age. I was barely able to pick my nose, much less really carry the weight of the free world on my shoulders. I can't imagine what they're going through."

At Buchanan, Clovis and Clovis East high schools, the war has become all too personal. The yearbooks are spread out on Kelly Avants' desk, and tagged are the senior portraits of young men - boys - who came home from Iraq in coffins.

Avants is the communications director for the school district, and one of her responsibilities has been to send out a mass e-mail to employees informing them when a Clovis Unified student has died in Iraq.

"Every time I send out a note, I get several e-mails back," Avants said. "We have six individual families that have lost a son, but the effect and the impact on many other families who have sons and daughters serving is serious."

Clovis Unified has half the number of students as the nearby Fresno district, but an equal number of students sign up for the military, according to a story in the Fresno Bee.

"In Clovis, and at Buchanan, there is an emphasis on pride, unity and the pursuit of excellence," said Bane, the recent graduate who is headed for boot camp today.

Few seem to talk in political terms in Clovis. Not that people aren't political - and at both ends of the spectrum - but rather there seems to be this pervasive disconnect. It has become far too close.

"It's just too personal with us," said Clovis Mayor Bob Whalen. "There is global aspect to the loss of life, but these are families we care about and families where we respect the young men's choices to go to war. There's probably a lot of people who feel it would dishonor that choice, so they don't even think in those terms."

At the Clovis Memorial Cemetery, the headstones of Jared Hubbard and Jeremiah Baro rest side by side. Presumably, Nathan Hubbard will join them. About 10 feet away, Lance Cpl. Anthony "Tony" Butterfield is buried. Tony requested he be placed near Jared and Jeremiah when, at 18, he filled out his will.

Butterfield was killed by a bomb in Iraq's Anbar province on July 29, 2006, a couple months after his 19th birthday, about a year after he graduated from Buchanan High and a month before he was scheduled to return home.

Robin and Keith Butterfield still go to the cemetery once or twice a week, tidying up Tony's area, as well as others nearby, and they haven't yet reached the point of putting away all of the stuff from their son's room.

The Butterfields have two daughters, 24-year-old Britney Hunt and 18-year-old Bailey, and another son, 22-year-old Jeremy. Unlike many in Clovis, theirs is not a military family, so when Tony told his mom that he planned to enlist, she was fully against it. There was no stopping him, though.

"He was enthralled with every bit of it," Robin said. "He had a passion for it."

Said Bailey: "He told me once after boot camp, 'After being though what I've been through with these guys, I would die for any one of them. They are my brothers.' "

Seven months after Tony died, 25-year-old Rowan Walter, a 1999 Buchanan grad, was killed during an ambush in Ramadi. Two months after that, 21-year-old Michael Rojas, a 2004 Clovis High East graduate, was killed by a roadside bomb. One month later, 23-year-old Steven Packer, a 2002 Clovis High grad on his third tour of duty in Iraq, was killed by an IED while searching for three captured soldiers.

Each time, the Butterfields found themselves reliving pieces of their own experience with Tony's death.

"I wish I could swallow up all the grief," said Hunt. "I don't want someone to ever feel that way."

And then came Nathan Hubbard. Peggy and Jeff Hubbard had become a huge source of support to the Butterfields after Tony died, and both families had seen how Clovis rallied around its own.

When Robin Butterfield got the word about Nathan Hubbard, she was getting ready for Back-to-School Night. She lost it. "I didn't know how I was going to pull it together."

Pulling it together, though, has become a way of life in Clovis. Word spread quickly about Nathan through phone calls, text messages, the news - the whole thing just rushed through town.

Once again, the Butterfields pulled it together and tried to focus on the Hubbards. They learned so much from their own experience that Robin and Britney have said they could write a book. (Robin: "If there's something to do, just do it, don't ask." Britney: "Bring water bottles, paper plates, toilet paper. Everybody brings food. Everybody brings Italian food. You can't eat - you're just sick to your stomach.")

Even more, the Butterfields saw Clovis do what Clovis does. The popular local coffeehouse, the Little French Hen Café, just down the street from the funeral home, put out a jar and raised money for a Nathan Hubbard Memorial Fund. Hundreds of people, some who never even knew the Hubbards, turned out for the candlelight vigil. And young kids who knew Nathan poured their hearts out on MySpace pages and in notes to the family.

"It doesn't matter if you're for the war or against the war," Keith Butterfield said. "It was these kids' decisions, knowing free and clear what could happen, and we're there to support them."

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